pertwk Page 29
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As Casalos looked around, he opened his talent tree and was surprised to find that his settings panel had changed. A new, independent talent tree that he was unaware of had been added, and several nodes had been lit up.
It focuses its consciousness upon it, and the flow of information is once again injected into its consciousness as abstract subjective feelings, which are then displayed in words, and the new talent tree is given a name and a detailed description:
A gift from the primordial dragon race.
You voluntarily helped the Worldshaper race of the Kingdom of Sky-Toril, the Primal Dragon race, the Gem Dragon Bejuri, whose dragon soul traveled to the afterlife. This Primal Dragon gifted you with the seed of his Primal Worldshaper power, which originated from the Nine-Headed Dragon God, granting you a new path to advancement.
The gods of the realms know of the existence of the primordial power, but they do not know its significance. They regard it as a low-level, alien force outside the realms, and you do not need to be overly wary of them. However, I must remind you that some of my brothers and sisters have always coveted this power that originates directly from the nine-headed dragon god, Aio.
Chapter 70
However, you don't need to worry too much. At least, my brothers and sisters won't enter the Dragon Treasury. As long as you don't encounter them directly on the continent of Faerûn, they won't know the secret that you obtained the Seed of Primal Power.
— Kressa
This talent tree actually represents the Bejuri Flame!
The straightforward signature made Casalos realize who had bypassed it and altered the talent tree, presenting it with a complete talent tree showing it the growth path of the Bejuri Flame, the seed of primordial power. It must be said, it truly received the blessing of the Miracle Light—probably an extra benefit from the generous payment of over 2000 silver coins in the previous trial.
According to Casalos's observation, silver coins seem to be very important to the Dragon God who "part-times" in the Dragon's Treasury. In other words, besides using them to buy in-game items, raising the Dragon God's reputation and favorability may be the most important function of silver coins.
76. New Forces
Kressa's comment, inspired by the Miracle Light, reminded Casalos of a certain point. Although she didn't explicitly name which dragon gods would covet the seed of primordial power, guessing their identities wasn't too difficult. After all, the hint was clear: any dragon god untouched within the Dragon Treasury was a suspect.
The matter of the gods is temporarily irrelevant to Casalos; what it needs to be concerned about is the true effect of this primordial power seed. The detailed description of the manifested talent tree allows it to intuitively understand the power it has already mastered and the power it may gain in the future.
Casalos has now activated three nodes in the Primal Seed Talent Tree, the first of which, as the root node, is "Flickering Flame," specifically described as:
The seed of primordial power has been implanted within you, shining brightly in your marrow. It draws energy from the vacuum to grow, slowly releasing it to warm your body and absorb some of your energy. As your size increases, the overall efficiency and power of the primordial power seed in absorbing energy will improve, and the flame effect will grow in tandem with you.
The shimmering light of the primordial power represents one of the most essential components of the multiverse. It will penetrate your semi-elemental body as a true dragon and reveal itself in a directional radiance. Wherever it shines, any existence that is hidden by any means will be revealed in its true form.
Undoubtedly, this is the effect of the primal power energizing the Dragon Treasury and reflecting the drow dragons that merged into its image; it is also the foundation upon which the primal power takes effect.
"What the hell is this thing? A Casimir Reactor? What does directional light mean? A laser? Are the Bejuri Gem Dragons really that strong? I remember they were weaker than the Chrome Dragons... No, wait, in the era when the Bejuri Gem Dragons shaped the world, the Celestial Realm didn't have any psionic magic. Those guys survived and grew entirely on this thing, and then reshaped the surface of the planet Toril. Now it seems that psionic energy is a power they gained after reshaping the world. And now, this primordial power seed that I acquired later has reacted with the magic that all things possess, resulting in an exponential increase in its effects."
What luck... I got this in exchange for wiping out my entire clan, damn it, the chromatic dragon, damn it..."
Abstract information was not fully translated into words, but that did not prevent Casalos from finding the answer to the question.
Its second activated node, named "Nourish" by Kressa, has the effect of nourishing its body with the seed of primordial power, increasing its development and self-healing speed. This item also contributed to the recent extra growth in its base attributes.
The third node is called Robustness, and its effect is, of course, to enhance the mechanical properties of the scales and skin. Slightly different from Casalos's previous observations, this effect extends to all matter within the dragon's body. That is to say, not only the scales and skin, but Casalos's interactions are strengthened at every level, from macroscopic tendons, bones, blood vessels, and even adipose tissue, down to the interactions between each cell and its interior and exterior, and even with each molecule, atom, and every trace of magic.
The final quantified data of its performance is a natural defense of +5 and a spell resistance of +5.
After muttering a few complicated words, Casalos looked at the nodes that hadn't been lit up yet—this talent tree node wasn't lit up with gold coins, but with a new kind of treasure currency that looked like a shimmering purple crystal. Casalos decided not to give it any other name and simply called it Amethyst.
What's even more interesting is that after the talent tree appeared, the panel showed that there were exactly two amethyst crystals remaining. It seems that you can obtain one amethyst crystal for each boss you defeat in the Treasure Vault dungeon, which can be used to enhance special talent trees like Primal Power.
The three nodes—Flame, Nourishment, and Robustness—form the foundation of this new talent tree, leading to a single path that ascends step by step. After Robustness, it branches into two new nodes: one called Split and the other called Blazing.
Disintegration is easy to understand; its effect is similar to the famous Disintegration spell from Duncan, also known as the "Weeping of Allies and Enemies" spell. Its specific function is to destroy magical effects and material structures to a certain extent, thereby counteracting existing magical effects or causing irreversible damage to things including magical items.
Of course, Casalos's current ability to unleash Disintegrate is not as powerful as the Great Disintegrate, but it is also a growth ability that increases with its size, reaching ten or even nine-tenths of its full potential.
If there were no Blazing Flame, Casalos would have chosen to disintegrate. But there's still a Blazing Flame hanging there on the same level; he has to check it out before making a decision.
Blazing Flame: The seed of primordial power has taken root and sprouted within your body, growing into a tender branch called "Blazing Flame." You can channel the power of Blazing Flame into your innate weapon. When you use an innate weapon infused with Blazing Flame to launch an attack, Blazing Flame will invade the target's body regardless of any obstacles, continuously burning the target's basic structure and causing damage that ignores any defense, resistance, damage reduction, and saving throw effects.
At the same time, the blazing flames that invade the target will also absorb any energy that is freely dissipating within the target's body, and will explode when the capacity is reached to produce ultimate destruction.
Currently available at level 1, this skill channels flames into the breath weapon, causing a burning effect lasting 3 to 8 seconds. Energy absorption success rate and efficiency are low; the worse the target's condition and the lower their resistance, the higher the success rate. Learning this skill costs 2 Amethysts.
Burning true damage plus execute effect!
Although the level 1 Blazing Execute effect is now almost negligible, the true damage alone is enough to make Casaroz abandon Disintegrate and choose Blazing.
There's no need to think too much about the actual combat for now. If you can beat Casalos, you can beat him; if you can't, you can only run away as soon as possible. The short-lasting true damage burn doesn't have much significance other than annoying others.
The true damage and execute effect are practically tailor-made for those bosses with long health bars and high defense in the training dungeons!
The gold drop rate in the normal rooms of the training dungeon is pitiful. You only get gold by defeating the boss, and you can only make real progress with gold. Why would you choose the hateful and useless Disintegration instead of Blazing Flame?
Furthermore, as the level increases and the branch continues to enhance the Blazing Flame, the true damage and finishing effect of Blazing Flame will become more and more obvious. Two amethysts are definitely worth the choice.
"This thing just looks kind of familiar... Oh well, the whole Dragon's Treasury has a pretty strong sense of déjà vu anyway, as long as it works."
Shaking his head to dismiss the unreliable thoughts, Casalos, now empowered, excitedly embarked on his training dungeon.
77. The Law of Conservation of Qi and Luck
"grass!"
Upon entering the training dungeon and seeing the entrance, Casalos couldn't help but swear. It had arrived in a blizzard-swept, icy wasteland. The frigid environment was extremely effective against fire-attribute subspecies.
Chapter 71
The howling blizzard also directly disabled its flight ability—this blizzard was no ordinary natural storm. Just as lava flows naturally gather fire elemental magic, blizzards also easily accumulate wind and ice elements, greatly enhancing their own effects.
Let alone flying creatures like dragons that are terrible at flying, even wind elements dare only to slowly "wriggle" close to the ground in this blizzard mixed with abundant natural ice elements.
In such an environment, Casalos's only advantages are the relatively heavy bodies of the Atheros compared to other dragons, and the ability to use its wings as an extra pair of appendages to provide greater grip.
The first room opens with a horde of skeleton minions that are quickly cleared out. The loot dropped consists of spell-like abilities: two blue and one epic. This strongly suggests that the guaranteed purple item in the opening room and the three optional items are buffs unlocked after certain conditions are met during the game. This implies that the Dragon's Vault trial dungeon has a hidden achievement system, which will become increasingly apparent as the exploration of Casalos progresses.
Perhaps he'd used up all his luck in the last match, because this time the guaranteed epic-quality spell at the start was Reincarnation, which wasn't entirely useless, but practically pointless in-game. The two blue options were Detect Plants and Animals and Flash Dust, leaving Casalos with no choice but to grumble and grab the only potentially useful one, Flash Dust.
However, Casalos was unaware that his bad luck in this game had only just begun...
The short two or three-day slumber passed quickly. Soothed by scroll spells and potions with a sedative effect, Casalos endured the real experience of death that manifested in his body and eventually "woke up naturally."
Upon waking, it immediately entered a state of rage and madness, venting its fury in the cramped cavity. It unleashed a barrage of physical attacks and breath strikes on the lava and rock layers, nearly burying itself alive before finally waking up, panting heavily.
In fact, it had already raged several times in the Dragon Treasury's main hall, and this time when it woke up in reality was the result of its deliberate indulgence—it was afraid that if it forcibly suppressed its anger and returned to the mushroom bushes, it would be unable to control itself and would explode when it saw those messy citizens.
This ordeal was absolutely infuriating, driving Casalos to madness.
The extremely unfavorable environment, along with the three useless options guaranteed at the start, was just a harbinger. In the subsequent room trials, the frequency of encountering groups of magic-type monsters was extremely high and incredibly annoying. Moreover, Casalos could only obtain a truly useful enhancement on average every five rooms. It can be said that Casalos relied entirely on its fixed growth every four rooms and its own inherent strength to slowly grind its way to the first shop room.
This time, the shop's mascot is a gigantic brass dragon with an eternal smile on its face. This dragon goddess has a golden eight-pointed star on the center of her turquoise forehead, and her sky-blue eyes sparkle with joy and longing for life.
Astridine, daughter and messenger of the nine-headed dragon Io, player, feaster of dawn, representative of the transformative power of dragons... yet, she is a brass dragon!
Casalos sat motionless in the shop for over two months, listening to Astridian spout meaningless drivel, before finally opening the shop page and making some pointless purchases. If it weren't for the lack of normal nutrient depletion within the Dragon's Treasury, Casalos suspected he might have starved to death inside—of course, as a half-elemental subspecies, he had the Primal Power Seed to share the body's energy consumption, so starvation was unlikely; he was more likely to be drowned in the nonsense of this bronze dragon god.
What could it do? The Dragon God, the Daughter of Aio. When this Dragon God kept telling it all sorts of jokes that were colder than the freezing cold of the world, it had to listen attentively with a smile and pretend to be funny at the right time to be a good straight man. Otherwise, getting negative reputation would definitely bring bad luck into reality!
Thanks to the Dragon Treasury for keeping its state constant, it wasn't allowed to become a dragon drowned by the Dragon God's nonsense.
Even so, when Astridian finally stopped and opened the shop page, a dizzy and disoriented Casarosz bought two items without even looking at what was available. It must be said, enduring the barrage of nonsense from the goofy dragon god did have some benefits; the two items Casarosz chose proved crucial in the first boss challenge that followed.
The first boss Casalos encountered was the white dragon it had longed to avenge, though it was in its prime. A necklace purchased from the shop that granted 20 frost resistance and immunity to freezing effects, along with a bizarre restoration feat called "Reviving Winds," allowed Casalos to withstand the white dragon's relentless onslaught, ultimately wearing down the powerful dragon with the true damage from its flames.
But... what could be worse than encountering a goofy dragon god?
Judging from Casalos's recent experience, he must have encountered the second silly dragon god.
When Casalos was just two rooms away from the second shop, he encountered a rare room door that gleamed with the light of gold coins and emitted a rich aroma of gold. As a dragon, he naturally waddled inside without hesitation. If Asgrass could give him another chance, he would definitely say three words to that magnificent golden door: I refuse!
If a time limit had to be placed on this resolve, it would hopefully be forever...
Behind the magnificent gate of gold coins lies yet another chaotic dragon god. Astilab, the acquirer, the mistress of the treasure, a goddess of dragon rank and social class.
Astilab used the appearance of an amethyst dragon, a true dragon subspecies closely related to the Atheros, to receive Casalos. She smiled kindly, showing Casalos the meticulous care of an elder, before pulling it onto an elaborate gambling table and swindling it out of all the silver coins it had painstakingly earned!
Casalos, having regained his senses, was already thrown into the next room. After his furious victory, he could only enter the shop with a pitiful few dozen silver coins, where he was mocked by Astrid for almost a week. Looking at the page full of purple epic and gold legendary items, he rushed into the second boss room with a bleeding heart, and ended this blood-spitting ordeal inexplicably amidst the dragon's wrath.
78. Peaceful Days
Finally, what stopped Casalos from advancing was an extremely old green dragon.
Being completely melted away by a highly corrosive breath is definitely among the top ten most painful ways to die. Casaloz, in its dragon-rage state inside the dungeon, didn't feel much pain, but when the death experience was repeated in the outer hall, it was tortured terribly... After leaving the Dragon Vault, it had to experience the death again in reality through memory, making even its short-term slumber, which was forcibly maintained by magic, full of nightmares.
Thus, Casaloz's hatred for the chromatic dragons, especially the green dragons, deepened considerably.
Strictly speaking, this hateful encounter had nothing to do with the Color Dragon. According to its own post-event analysis, if it hadn't been swindled out of all its silver coins by Astilabo, it could have bought at least two gold legendary enhancements from the shop. One of them, strong acid immunity, would have allowed it to withstand the Green Dragon's breath attack. Combined with the growth enhancements it gained in the previous room, it would have had a high chance of successfully grinding down this Green Dragon BOSS by using true damage, just like it had whittled down the White Dragon.
Astilabo was the real culprit behind its ultimate downfall!
But... can Casalos blame a dragon god? Especially a dragon god who oversees the dragon treasury.
Furthermore, Astilabo's explanation was very clear: it was a voluntary betting game, guaranteed absolutely fair and just by the Dragon's Treasury, based solely on luck. Whether Casalos wanted to participate and how much to bet was entirely its own choice. It just had incredibly bad luck this time, losing the very first round. Then, blinded by greed, it went all-in hoping to recoup its losses, only to lose even its shameful scales.
Chapter 72
How can you blame the Dragon God?
Therefore, this grudge can only be placed on the Colorful Dragon.
Even so, Casalos decided that it would never enter that glittering room again. Cherish life, stay away from gambling, seize your dragon life, starting today!
The unlucky ordeal from the start has come to an end, but overall Casalos didn't leave empty-handed. Compared to its first inexplicable demise in a rare boss room, this time it cleared 33 rooms and earned over 800 gold coins, enough to directly spend real money to level up the Carved Skin Dragon by one more level.
But it didn't do that.
Since the most difficult part of becoming a Carved Skin Dragon has been completed, the remaining improvement is simply continuing to carve runes imbued with mysterious power onto its scales and skin. Casalos learned of the complete set of runes upon successfully advancing to Carved Skin Dragon and has never given up trying to guide dragon magic to carve them. Although he hasn't seen results yet, the original price of 600 gold coins for upgrading Carved Skin Dragon to level 2 has been reduced to less than 100, indicating that it's only a little short of successfully upgrading. Of course, it's no longer worthwhile to continue spending money.
Casalos strongly suspected that this was a perk unique to the first advanced class he chose in the Dragon's Treasury, and that other advanced classes might not have such good things.
Ultimately, it invested the 800-plus gold coins into the prerequisite feat for its next advanced profession, Elemental Master, which it had decided on earlier.
The Carved Skin Dragon is a true dragon exclusive version of the armor-stacking advancement. In addition to basic upgrades, its core focus is on continuously improving the dragon's innate armor, spell resistance, attribute energy immunity, and damage reduction.
The Elemental Master is an advanced level that involves tapping into the potential of the semi-primitive elemental power that constitutes the dragon's body, as indicated by the "Elemental Subspecies" attribute of dragons.
Two powerful elemental forces revel within the dragon's body: the energy that powers its breath weapons, and the elemental essence that forms the core of its being. Elemental Masters strive to achieve perfect, pure harmony with these two forces. Like the Leather-Carved Dragons, almost exclusively true dragons pursue the path of Elemental Master, for this profession demands a close connection with elemental and energy forces—a skill developed by dragons themselves, an advanced class belonging to the dragon race.
The prerequisites for becoming an Elemental Master are much higher than those for becoming a Leather Dragon, and therefore the cost of real-money purchases is also much higher. Even with the good fortune he had in the second trial, Casalos was still a huge distance away from becoming an Elemental Master, requiring four more trials.
It is foreseeable that, due to the immense randomness of the Dragon's Treasury, it is impossible for every trial to be so smooth sailing; the time interval will be much longer than ideal.
However, it still chose to invest its gold in prerequisite feats, mainly because the Elemental Master requires three Super Breath feats as prerequisites. Super Breath feats are very useful, and are even considered blue quality in-game. Investing gold in them can greatly enhance its actual combat power.
With Casalos's Blaze now channeled into his breath weapon, the in-game benefits of the Hyper Breath feat are exceptionally overpowered.
Blazing Flame is a passive ability that triggers whenever the breath touches a target, and continuous breaths will continuously refresh Blazing Flame. A Breath Recovery ability allows it to use its breath weapon more frequently, greatly increasing the efficiency of grinding down the boss's health with true damage; Breath Extender, which significantly increases the breath distance, greatly improves safety and the margin for error when dealing damage to the boss for extended periods.
As players invest more in upgrades, Casalos will find it increasingly easier to navigate challenging dungeons before its HD level increases, making gold acquisition easier and resulting in more noticeable upgrades. This snowball effect will lead to exponential growth in its power curve.
Now that the rift valley is closed, nothing can threaten Casalos and its territory, giving it ample space and time to develop.
The excavation of Gravesend is progressing very slowly. According to the results of recent prophetic spells, it will take them at least seven years to open the passage to the rift. What awaits them is a huge surprise... or rather, a shock, from the perspective of the gray dwarves themselves.
With a strategic vision that overlooks the world, he plans and guides the development of all aspects of the territory. He continues to train as a warrior and to understand and comprehend arcane magic. During his rest time, he guides the dragon magic to carve mysterious runes. Every two months or so, when the power of the Dragon Treasury is almost fully charged by the flames, he goes into the fire elemental confluence of the lava flow to undergo a trial that may be lucky, unlucky, or ordinary. When he has nothing to do, he goes to show off his increasingly powerful strength and intimidate the drow dragon boy of the Charleson family... The simple, unadorned, and boring days pass by day after day, year after year.
The black smoke from the kobolds' steel smelting covered the Rift Dome with a thick layer of black ash, providing ample carbon for the fluorescent vines to climb up the dome and grow into a jungle. Mushrooms also sprouted on the tops of every stone pillar. Cable cars draped with fluorescent vines shuttled through the Rift, dragged by ferocious weasels. As the Rift transformed from its original darkness into a fairytale-like fairyland, Casalos entered its first long slumber.
It is about to pass through the larval stage and become a young dragon.
79. The Arrival of Age-Reversed Dormancy
"Hurry, hurry, speed up!"
Svent, Eisen's former bodyguard and now the captain of the Casaloz Guard, was directing the goblins to move thick ceramic boxes onto the hanging basket.
Its folded dragon wings indicate that it is a high-level dragon vein sorcerer who has reawakened its half-dragon bloodline. In fact, it currently possesses a level 4 Dragon Servant and a level 3 Eye Disciple level, making it a challenge level of 16 by adventurer standards, definitely a BOSS.
The level 9 Dragonvein Warlock fully restored its half-dragon body, the level 4 Dragon Servant greatly enhanced its innate half-dragon weapons and armor, granted it the elemental resistance befitting a subspecies of lesser elementals, and also established a mental link with Casaroz.
The Eye Disciple, a class that can only be advanced to by creatures with dragon blood or dragon veins, grants it extraordinary senses and magical abilities that allow it to wander through the eyes, making it the best candidate to be the captain of the Casaloz Guard.
"Big guy, pull the winch. This is the last batch of supplies the Dragon Lord needs. After this truck is delivered, we'll follow."
Upon hearing this, the two ogres, like donkeys pulling a millstone, began to push the huge steel winch. The steel cable gradually contracted, creaking and groaning as it drove the pulley system, pulling the open-style elevator slowly along the steel frame toward the lava channel.
The lava channel is a channel that diverts lava waterfalls to stone pillars for metal smelting. The main structure is made of reinforced concrete. The section near the stone pillars is supported by gantry cables, while the section near the lava waterfalls is connected to anchor points on the dome by steel cables. The main channel is lined with three layers of thick heat-insulating tiles. It can divert one-twentieth of the lava flow from the waterfalls to the stone pillars. Through electric furnaces, it can provide less than 10 tons of high-quality steel to Dragon's Territory every day. The waste slag after lava smelting can be processed and reused.
This is the industrial lifeline of Casaloz Dragon Territory.
Therefore, every 100 meters along the lava channel, there is a small steel outpost, where 12 dragon vein sorcerers and various warriors are stationed, guarding this lifeline day and night. To resupply the guards at the outposts, a steel cable car line powered by winches driven by ogres completely overlaps with the lava channel—in fact, thanks to the convenience of magic, Dragon Territory has already developed D-type boilers and steam engines, so using steam power for this cable car line would not be a technical problem at all.
The only reason Casalos continued to have the ogres push the winch was that he simply didn't know what to do with these big, dumb creatures. They did nothing but fight, ate a lot, and produced a lot; it was better to use their strength—several times that of the Iron Dragon hatchlings—to serve them properly, and also to put the limited capacity of the steam engine to a more suitable purpose.
Chapter 73
.
In short, the lava channel is still a "sky road" that leads directly to the lava waterfall, allowing even flightless land creatures to step into the lava.